SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Program’s Aim Is Jobs for Disabled

In between attending special education classes at the Capistrano Unified School District, Howard Polin gets great satisfaction from his student internship at the San Juan Capistrano Regional Library, where he files returned books according to their numbered codes.

“I have a mind for numbers,” said Polin, 20, who is developmentally disabled. “My library work is wonderful.”

Like many high school students, Polin isn’t sure what he’ll do when he graduates in two years. Unlike other students, Polin’s chances of finding full-time work will be even tougher, because up to 70% of disabled adults in the nation are unemployed, according to recent state figures.

But under a 4-year-old federal jobs training program, new in Orange County this year, educators are looking to create hundreds of new career opportunities for disabled students by creating programs similar to the one that has benefited Polin.

About 10 school districts in Orange County will receive federal funds this spring to participate in the Transitions Partnership Project, which is being administered by the State Department of Rehabilitation.

While local school districts and government agencies have long provided various types of job training for disabled students, this is the first time local efforts have been combined into a single, long-term program under state auspices and with federal funding, officials said.

“These students will get to be included into mainstream society,” said Doreen Lohnes, director of special education in the Capistrano Unified School District, which will receive about $120,000 in project funds this year for the program. “Many have been lost as individuals. From the community perspective, their contributions are being lost. A tax base is lost. Everybody suffers.”

A key to the inter-agency program is early intervention and helping disabled students make the tough transition from school to the working world, a period when many fall through the cracks and end up on the streets or on welfare.

“If the student can be picked up in high school and develop job skills, get plugged into job training programs and other community programs, and have a transition period from high school to community life, they tend to be far more successful and far more independent,” said Gary Strickland, a special education teacher who helped develop the Capistrano program.

Throughout California 89 school districts will have the transitions project in place by the end of the year, said Kate Moran, a project specialist with the Department of Rehabilitation and the State Department of Education. Job placement rates for California students in these programs have reached 70%, Moran said.

About 100 juniors and seniors enrolled in Capistrano special education classes, from those with mild learning disabilities and chronic medical problems, to those with severe physical and developmental handicaps, will be eligible to participate in the program in the district when it starts this spring.

Most students will attend one job training class a day for one semester, and work with a job coach once they find a position.

“We’ll be talking about job interviews, how to gain job resources, how to develop resumes, everything that is needed to get a job and to maintain that job,” Strickland said.

Educators are also developing a local jobs placement network. For example, Strickland said that Polin, with his proven work experience, should be a prime candidate for a full-time library position when he graduates.

“The need has been here a long time,” Strickland said. “This program is going to have such an impact on the students and their family life.”